Changes never occur in college football with the urgency and frequency to anyone’s satisfaction, but 2014 could be remembered as the year in which the game initiated perhaps its biggest moves since face bars were attached to helmets six decades ago.

The first playoffs for major-college football will be celebrated after the regular season, beginning with semifinal games New Year’s Day and culminating with the Jan. 12 College Football Championship Game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

That’s just the flashy part of what lies ahead. Other changes may have even more far-reaching consequences. On Aug. 7, the NCAA Division I board of directors is expected to adopt a recommendation from an eight-member steering committee that grants autonomy to the five power conferences: the Atlantic Coast, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and Southeastern.

The Power Five then will begin to address a variety of issues and proposals that could take effect for the 2015-16 academic year, including a “cost of attendance” stipend of $1,000 to $5,000 or more that will be paid to athletes above their tuition scholarship.

Also, the NCAA and its member schools are mired in fighting at least seven current class-action lawsuits, with most being directed at the economics of college athletics and the value of a scholarship — even whether college athletes should be considered professionals or university employees or both.

And there are rumblings that some members of Congress and various committees are taking an interest in all of this.

“The sport of college football has probably never been healthier,” said Craig Thompson, commissioner of the Mountain West. . “But there are storm clouds.”

Thompson said he has been pushing for a playoff system for 15 years and is “excited” that it has become a reality — although he would like to see it expanded to eight teams to better the odds of a Mountain West team being selected.

But the lawsuits “are really scary,” Thompson said.

“We’re moving into a period where we’ll probably spend as much time in the courts as on the courts in the next three to five years,” Thompson said. “And nobody has a crystal ball.”

Even representatives of the privileged five conferences have become nervous about what the future holds. Yes, scholarship college athletes, who are prohibited by NCAA rules from working part-time jobs, deserve some additional benefits so they can afford to socialize like other students, make trips back home and have their parents fly in for games.

Minor sports may fallBut how are schools to pay for all that?

“There’s only so much money out there,” Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said. “I don’t think that coaches and athletic directors are likely to take pay cuts. I think you’ll see men’s Olympic sports go away as a result of the new funding challenges that are coming down the pike.

“I think over a period of time what we’ll find is that instead of keeping a tennis program, (schools) are going to do the things that it takes to keep the football and men’s and women’s basketball programs strong,” Bowlsby added.

Ever the optimist, Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott believes financial challenges can be worked out without nonrevenue sports being subjected to a guillotine. Being particularly strong in Olympic sports, Pac-12 schools would have much to lose.

Scott said he would only fear the demise of nonrevenue sports if the courts order radical changes to college athletics.

“If there’s employee-employer status, collective bargaining or paying student athletes based on their market status, so many resources would be sucked away by football,” Scott explained. “If that doesn’t happen, I think with the changes due to (Power Five) autonomy we can still manage a broad-based commitment to student athletes.”

The five power conferences and their 65 members began to seek autonomy after a majority of the then 347 Division I schools struck down legislation initially passed in 2011 that would have provided an annual $2,000 stipend to athletes.

Division I is now made up of 351 schools. Some may have an annual athletics budget of less than $25 million. Others could surpass $100 million.

“The top 65 are different,” Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith told the Columbus Dispatch. “Our resources are significantly different than the other schools. We have the capacity to do more things for our student-athletes. We should be allowed to do those.”

The Power Five is careful to avoid saying student-athletes need to be “paid.” Instead, they refer to stipends that are in line with “cost of attendance.”

“It’s a tricky subject,” UCLA star quarterback Brett Hundley said last week during Pac-12 media days interviews. “We are blessed to be able to play for our school and get a degree while being on full scholarship. But that doesn’t cover everything.

“For some players, there aren’t the resources to ask their parents for money. There are other things that go with being a college student that you’d like to do. I know there are some players on our team that can’t afford to take a girl out to eat.”

Two levels of top tier At least in part, the revenue distribution from the College Football Playoff will help schools fund the cost-of-attendance stipends.

Each of the five power conferences will receive $50 million annually from the playoffs regardless of whether a conference has a team in the football’s version of a “final four.”

The other five Division I conferences that play football at the FBS level — American Athletic Conference, Mountain West, Conference USA, Mid-American Conference and Sun Belt — will split a total of $75 million annually in any fashion they choose.

While those associated with the smaller FBS conferences are appreciative of the extra cash, they worry about the gap between the haves and the have-nots growing wider and wider.

What if the Power Five decides to increase the number of scholarships per sport?

What if the Power Five rules that players who transfer from a team in a smaller conference do not have to sit out a year?

What happens if the Power Five provides an exorbitant stipend to players that the smaller leagues can’t come close to matching?

“I understand what the (five power conferences) are doing, and I can’t argue against that — they have made such a big investment in college football,” said New Mexico coach Bob Davie, who previously served as a national college football analyst for ESPN after coaching at Notre Dame.

“But they shouldn’t do anything to make the gap bigger,” Davie added. “Don’t take the New Mexicos out of the equation. Don’t make it so big that the Mountain West doesn’t have a chance.”

Football is football, Colorado State coach Jim McElwain said, and there is enough fan interest and talented players for everybody.

“It will be interesting to see five years down the road,” McElwain said. “I don’t think there is any doubt that the Mountain West will continue to be relevant. There will be room for conferences like ours to play the game.

“We can sit here and say, ‘Woe is me.’ Or do we do the best with what we’ve got?”

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